With high ratings on both the Apple and Google Play stores and tens of thousands of positive reviews, I was quite intrigued by InboxDollars. So I signed myself up and started to play around with the service. Then I took a deep dive into what people who use the app a lot are saying — and how they’re making money.

Then, I wrote this comprehensive InboxDollars review to help you decide for yourself the service is right for you.

InboxDollars Review

What is InboxDollars?

InboxDollars is a website and app that allows you to make money from home by doing simple tasks like taking surveys, watching television, reading emails, and shopping online. Some people think this seems too good to be true, so you may wonder why a website would pay someone to do these things.

It’s because brands value input from consumers and are willing to pay for it. InboxDollars earns money from those brands and gives you a share of the profits. Some of the brands InboxDollars works with include Netflix, Publishers Clearing House, and Groupon.

About the company (CotterWeb Enterprises, Inc.)

CotterWeb Enterprises owns InboxDollars, as well as other reputable sites such as SendEarnings and InboxPounds. Founded in 2000, the company has a longer history than most other survey sites you’ll run across, and boasts an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.

InboxDollars website

InboxDollars allows you to earn extra cash both from its app and from a desktop computer. While a bit outdated, the desktop website is easy to navigate. You will maximize your earning potential by using it, because some surveys are not available on mobile devices.

InboxDollars mobile app

If you prefer having the ability to make money when you’re on the go, you’ll need more than just desktop access to InboxDollars. For that purpose, you can install and use the service’s free mobile app.

This money-making app is great for when you have downtime in your daily life – time you would normally waste.

Sometimes, mobile apps are less than impressive. But this one garners rave reviews. In fact, it’s one of the most popular money-making apps for both iOS and Android devices.

You won’t be able to do everything you can do on the desktop site with this app. But you’ll be able to do most of it (about 90 percent). If you see a good survey on your phone, you might not be able to take it right then and there, but you can make a note to complete it later when you’re back home and have access to a computer.

Ways To Make Money With InboxDollars

One of the great things about InboxDollars is that it offers so many ways to earn money. If you hate taking surveys, you don’t have to. You can concentrate on the other money-making methods. There is something for everyone.

Here are some of the different ways to earn extra money with InboxDollars.

Sign-up bonus

If you can find sites that offer a sign-up bonus, you can make a decent chunk of free money for a just couple of minutes of sign-up time. InboxDollars is one of those sites, offering a $5 cash sign-up bonus after you complete a brief profile survey.

However, keep in mind that you won’t have access to that sign-up bonus until you’ve stored up enough money to meet the minimum cash-out threshold. We’ll discuss that amount later in the article.

Paid surveys

Surveys are a good way to make money because everyone has an opinion. All you have to do is share yours and start earning rewards. The surveys you’ll complete are used for market research. As I mentioned earlier, InboxDollars has partnered with brands like Netflix, Target, and Walmart, which pay to get this valuable information from consumers.

Unlike some other survey websites, InboxDollars is a survey aggregator. That means you might be redirected to a third-party site for your survey — but you’ll still be paid by InboxDollars for taking it.

The first thing you should do when you sign up is complete the profile survey. It will take you about five minutes, and you’ll earn 50 cents.

But the real reward isn’t that 50-cent payout — it’s what taking the profile survey will do for you in the future. Specifically, it will qualify you for better surveys that will pay you more money.

Once you start getting survey offers, keep in mind that you don’t have to complete all of them. If you’re pressed for time, take the ones that give you the highest payout per minute. For example, choose a survey that offers $1 for 10 minutes over a survey that offers $1 for 20 minutes.

This probably seems like obvious advice, but you’d be surprised by how many people just take the first survey that comes their way — even if it’s not the one that provides the best return on their time investment.

The best strategy is to take the profile survey, then be patient with the surveys you choose to complete from there on out. Make sure to check your survey offers two or three times each week to spot the higher-paying ones.

You may not always have high-paying options. That’s why it’s a good idea to sign up for more than one survey site if you want to maximize your earning potential. Here’s my list of the best survey sites if you’re interested in learning more.

While online surveys are not the highest value activity on InboxDollars, they do offer the most overall potential to earn.

Playing games

If you’re a gamer at heart, you’re in luck. You can get rewarded for playing free games with InboxDollars. If you choose to play paid games, you’ll get 18 percent cash back.

If you opt for free games like Solitaire, you’ll notice they’re supported by ads. You won’t earn money for playing these games; instead, you’ll earn progress on the “Scratch and Win” bar. When your bar progress gets high enough, you’ll get a scratch-off card.

With time, you’ll learn that the best strategy is to stick with the free games. And if you’re the competitive sort, you’ll enjoy seeing who is at the top of the free games leaderboard, which ranks all InboxDollars members.

Search engine (Cash Search)

If you rely on your computer for researching everyday questions, this will be a great passive income app for you. For the first qualified search you do, you’ll earn one cent. After that, you’ll earn one cent for every two qualified searches.

You might be wondering what a “qualified search” is. It’s a search that is performed naturally, where you’re seeking actual results for the query you entered. (In other words, you can’t just do a bunch on nonsense searches to try and rack up earnings.)

The most you can earn per day via Cash Search is 15 cents. If you do the maximum number of daily searches, you’ll earn more than $50 per year just for something you’d be doing anyway. It’s a solid source of passive income, which is the best kind of money to bring in.

This money-making method is available both on your desktop and on the mobile app.

Watch videos

If you like to watch videos anyway, this is perfect for you. You can also multi-task by getting paid to watch videos in the background while you work. The payout isn’t great at around one or two pennies per video, but you’re also rewarded with “Spin and Win” tickets.

On a few popular personal finance sites, I’ve read that you can earn up to $225 a month with InboxDollars videos. While it’s true you can earn that amount, it would require being glued to your computer and also depends on the availability. In other words, don’t count on paying off your debt by watching videos.

Read emails

If you find yourself checking your email frequently throughout the day, you might as well get paid for doing so. With InboxDollars, you’ll get cash for every email you open. The emails will consist of special offers that you might be interested in.

After you open and read the email, you’ll have to click a button that confirms you’ve read through it. If you decide to sign up for a special offer that appears in one of the emails you’ve read, you’ll earn even more cash.

Loyal InboxDollars users report emails as being one of the highest dollar-per-hour activities. You earn around two cents per email, but they only take a few seconds to click through.

Trial Offers

InboxDollars frequently has trial offers that you can earn money from. Credit card offers are common. However, it’s important to only sign up for offers related to things you’re going to buy anyway, so that you don’t overspend trying to get a fraction of the cash back on an impulsive purchase.

WinIt codes

A WinIt code is made up of letters and numbers. You’ll enter the code into an online box in an attempt to win prizes. You can win things like cash and sweepstakes items.

You’ll find these free codes by following InboxDollars on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The more social media sites you’re on, the better your chance of finding codes. When you see them, act fast: they expire at 11:59 p.m. CST the same day they’re posted.

Spin and Win (sweepstakes entries)

Sometimes when you’re in the middle of filling out a survey, you’ll be disqualified from it. That can happen because you don’t meet some particular demographic requirement, or because one of your answers ruled you out of the target audience for that particular survey.

To take some of the sting out of spending a few minutes working on something you can’t complete, InboxDollars offers the “Spin and Win” wheel.

You’ll have a chance to earn a prize on the wheel. You’ll find spinning the wheel works best from a desktop or laptop computer, because the mobile app can have interruptions while you’re spinning.

You can spin it up to 20 times per day.

Print and use coupons

Do you like saving money by using coupons? If so, that’s another way to get paid through InboxDollars. You’ll earn 10 cents for every coupon you print. And of course, you’ll also get the face-value savings when you use the coupon at the store. So you’re earning money in two different ways with this method.

You may want to limit your coupons to the ones you’ll truly use, however. Between the paper and ink, each page you print will cost you money. So, the greatest savings will be with the coupons you actually use.

InboxDollars vs. Swagbucks

Swagbucks and InboxDollars generally draw a lot of comparisons to each other. That’s because they’re both popular general-reward sites that offer many ways to earn money.

My favorite way to earn is through cash-back sites, which reward me for purchasing items I intended to purchase anyway. You can get a portion of your purchase price back for little to no effort.

For this method of earning money, I prefer Swagbucks over InboxDollars because Swagbucks has better cash-back rates.

But that’s not always the case, so it can be a good idea to sign up for both sites. Then you can compare which one will give you a greater amount of money back for the purchase you’re about to make when you’re shopping online.

How To Cash Out Your Rewards

After you’ve been at it a while, you’ll be anxious to request payment for the first time. You’ll need a minimum of $30 in your account to cash out for your free gift cards or to get a check. Your payment options will include pre-paid Visa cards and gift cards to popular stores such as Target and Amazon.

InboxDollars doesn’t pay through PayPal, so you won’t need to link your account to get paid. You do have the option of receiving a check in the mail, though. Just make sure the address they have on file for you is up-to-date.

For non-Gold members, payments take 10 to 16 days to process (for your first payment).

One negative thing about InboxDollars is that they charge a $3 processing fee for requesting payment. But some users have said the $3 fee is waived if you don’t cash out until you have at least $40 in your account.

How do you become a Gold member?

Becoming a Gold member has its advantages, including receiving faster payouts. Luckily, it’s easy to become a Gold member. All you have to do is request your first payment. After that’s been processed, you’ll be given Gold member status.

InboxDollars Review (Summary)

InboxDollars is one of the top general rewards sites on the internet. It has an established history and is easy to use.

You’ll never get rich with this site, but you can make $20 to $40 per month. That will be enough to get a check every month as a small additional revenue stream, or a gift card you can use for a special occasion or as Christmas gifts.

About The Author

R.J. Weiss is the founder and editor of The Ways To Wealth, a Certified Financial Planner™, husband and father of three. He's spent the last 10+ years writing about personal finance and has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, MSN Money, and other publications.

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